Opposable Thumbs —

Wicka-wicka-wicked: DJ Hero new, fresh, triumphant

DJ Hero may not have the wide appeal of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band …

Here's what you should know about DJ Hero, because this is a large departure from past rhythm games published by Activision: the two-player gameplay is simply a competition to see who can score the highest on the same track, there is no online play, you can't fail out of a song, there is no World Tour mode, and each track is a unique combination of two songs. This isn't a party game, and the mode where you can hook up a guitar controller to play along with a friend only works with a handful of songs.

Still with me? Good. Because DJ Hero is a gutsy move for Activision, and it pays off in a big way. This is one of the most refreshing and brave games this year, and it operates as a sort of primer for players to find out what DJs do, how they do it, and what the music sounds like. This may not be for everyone, but for those with an open mind, this could open the world of turntablism to an entirely new audience.

It's worth talking about the music, because while you'll recognize many of these songs, each one is mixed with another track to create an entirely new composition with elements of both songs. The diversity and number of artists is impressive: Daft Punk, Marvin Gaye, 2Pac, Motorhead, The Killers, Beastie Boys, Black Eyed Peas, Gang Starr, Herbie Hancock, Queen, Jay-Z, Afrika Bambaataa... the list goes on. The game has 102 songs, used to make 93 original mixes.

Who created those mixes? Grandmaster Flash, DJ Shadow, DJ AM, Cut Chemist, and DJ Jazzy Jeff, among others. The tracks that were selected, and the artists used to mix them and create the original compositions in the game, are above reproach. The $120 asking price for the turntable and game is high, but when you think that each song in the game required the licensing of two existing tracks, and then a third artist had to create the original mix you hear in the game, and then the note charts had to be created by the designers, it becomes easy to understand where that money goes.

Nothing about the music in this game was done the cheap or easy way, and it shows. You can set up a custom mix of tracks and then just sit back and listen to the music without having to play, or use it as the background music for a party while the game displays visuals on your television if you just want to enjoy the tracks themselves.

The controller, and the way you play

The controller bundled with the game may feel light at first, but set down on a surface it doesn't slide easily, and the buttons all feel solid and responsive. The platter spins easily, the crossfade moves quickly with a tactile click in the center, and the volume knob requires just the right amount of torque to spin. The $200 Renegade Edition controller features black and gold coloring, but the change is merely aesthetic; it's the same controller you get with the $120 package, with a paintjob.

The controller is designed well, and feels great in action. But how do you use the damn thing?

This is a game where playing through the tutorials—hosted by Grandmaster Flash—is a great idea. If you hand most people a guitar, they know how to hold it; it's a stringed instrument, and people intuitively know where their hands go and how music is made using it. To the uninitiated, this controller is going to be confusing, and there is quite the learning curve.

The buttons are simple: notes come down the curved record on the screen and you hit the colored buttons that match them. When you have a streak coming down you have to hold the button and scratch the record. Any movement will do: back and forth, one long spin, as long as the platter is in constant motion. On harder difficulties the game will specify which direction to scratch, which can make timing much trickier.

It's funny how we all laughed at this when first hearing about it (myself included), but all of the early reviews are really solid. The song/artist choices have me intrigued - I'm definitely looking forward to this.

Originally posted by spankmonkey:Does this game teach you anything closely related to what it takes to scratch records for real?

As someone who made his living DJing clubs during university, I can say resoundingly NO, not anywhere close...

When you actually DJ, you use two turntables, each with a pitch/speed control, where the cross fade switches the audio from one to the other, and first skill is beat mixing using the headphones to listen to what you are queuing up and the pitch/speed to synchronize the two beats together before fading out of one into the other. The art is knowing how to make that sound good, by using the EQ, scratching, sampling, looping, etc. With one turntable, this game won't teach you even basic beat mixing, and without the audio even reacting appropriately to the motion of the forward/backward motion of the turntable, you can't learn how to make scratching sound better either.

Originally posted by spankmonkey:Does this game teach you anything closely related to what it takes to scratch records for real?

As someone who made his living DJing clubs during university, I can say resoundingly NO, not anywhere close...

When you actually DJ, you use two turntables, each with a pitch/speed control, where the cross fade switches the audio from one to the other, and first skill is beat mixing using the headphones to listen to what you are queuing up and the pitch/speed to synchronize the two beats together before fading out of one into the other. The art is knowing how to make that sound good, by using the EQ, scratching, sampling, looping, etc. With one turntable, this game won't teach you even basic beat mixing, and without the audio even reacting appropriately to the motion of the forward/backward motion of the turntable, you can't learn how to make scratching sound better either.

So it's exactly like Rockband/Guitar Hero in that "it's not the real thing, but it can be a lot of fun, and perhaps a gateway into the real thing insofar as inspiring interest in the real thing."

I'm actually really disappointed that there's no freestyle mode on this, where you can mix and scratch at will. I haven't seen the game or controller in action yet, but it's just such a natural fit assuming they could have included the full tracks they mash-up (this might be a licensing issue) and the controller is up to snuff (i.e. it can measure velocity as well as direction of scratches). Since the tracks are already beat matched for the game you don't have to worry about bpms, everyone could have some fun with it. Maybe next time when they release the two turntable controller...

It's sad that the corporate culture surrounding the creation of games would think: "One game that deviates from the standard formula didn't sell; therefore, no game that deviates from the standard formula will ever sell."

can't help making this comment:So what's wrong with actual turn table or even the DJ mixing software? It's a lot easier to pick up and learn how to do it on your own time. You can spend about the same time to get started.

I can see the guitar hero and rock band being the party games, but dj hero seems a bit off.

I bought one guitar hero game b/c I was curious. I play guitar(s) and I found it utterly unintuitive and hurt me playing guitar(s). After my brief encounter with the music rhythm games, I thought it would be more fun to play with music editors for these games than the actual games themselves.....

I wonder if Gamefly rent this game in any form. If this was 79.99 price range, I would have picked up, but I rather spend that money and get the real dj gears/software and play with them.

Originally posted by spankmonkey:Does this game teach you anything closely related to what it takes to scratch records for real?

As someone who made his living DJing clubs during university, I can say resoundingly NO, not anywhere close...

When you actually DJ, you use two turntables, each with a pitch/speed control, where the cross fade switches the audio from one to the other, and first skill is beat mixing using the headphones to listen to what you are queuing up and the pitch/speed to synchronize the two beats together before fading out of one into the other. The art is knowing how to make that sound good, by using the EQ, scratching, sampling, looping, etc. With one turntable, this game won't teach you even basic beat mixing, and without the audio even reacting appropriately to the motion of the forward/backward motion of the turntable, you can't learn how to make scratching sound better either.

Well that also depends on what kind of DJ you want to be. Interestingly enough due to the whole bedroom/controllerism set of DJs, most DJ's don't look all that much different than what you have here. The difference is that this is a rhythm game thus less interactive than the real thing, but other than the fancy lane and videos in the background most dj software has things like cue point, loop points, etc, that you can set on every song you are going to mix. You can also most definitely mix with one turntable with something like Traktor, you can even mix without a turntable altogether. Depending on the genre of music you are doing you can use a laptop, some controllers and Ableton Live and be called a DJ. I'm not saying that this game is a real dj experience because you don't actually do any real beat juggling or anything remotely musical, you have no control over the song itself. I just wanted to point out that one turn table doesn't automatically mean you aren't a dj.

Anyway if you are really serious about djing and don't want to go the expensive turntable route (though you can get a nice setup cheaper than you think) you can get something like this http://ci.vestax.com/en/products/index.html. Best bang for buck package out there imo. and you get a "real" dj experience with real pro level dj software to boot.

@giggity: It is a rhythm game. I don't think it is really trying to represent actual mixing at all. It's like complaining that you don't push analog sticks and press buttons in actual combat. It is just a fun way to interact with music.

People who play this don't want to be DJs either. If they want to be a DJ, then sure, get some software and real equipment. This is just an interesting diversion. Is there some rule that every story about a rhythm game has to have complaints about how unrealistic they are and how if you spent that much time on the real thing then blah blah blah?

Originally posted by Bird Skull:No trolling today, I'd actually like to play this one.

I nearly had coffee shoot out my nose when I read this. You feeling alright, Bird Brain? Just kidding. It's a really fun time. So are many of the other games you like to take shots at. But cheers for having an open mind today.

+1 to the comments regarding this is not supposed to be the real thing. Music games are a different way of interacting with music and enjoying it on a different level. When I really want to jam I hop on my drum kit or my serrato setup.

I still love the fake guitar games. I still buy and play every one that gets released. Unlike a lot of people, the second I saw DJ Hero, I thought it looked cool. I've had the game on preorder for months from Amazon. I played the demo in Best Buy a couple weeks ago and really liked it. Now that I've played it a couple days at home, I love it.

The songs are great. I would almost say the gameplay is deep. The harder levels make scratching more interesting having to worry about direction. Dealing with rewind, the effect zones, those red sampling areas, cross fader spiking, etc... The game can be as simple as can be or pretty darn difficult. I'm also really pleased with how solid the turntable feels. The platter spins smoothly and everything just feels solid.

My only worry is I've heard pre-orders were like half what Activision was expecting. People may finally be sick of all the plastic crap they have to buy. I'm hoping that as bundles drop in price, like the full band games did, people will pick it up. The more people that have the turntable, the better chances of future games.

Sheesh, another lame 2 page review for a game that should be going into so much more depth. Come on Kuchera, get with the program!

Two 2-page reviews for DJ Hero and Forza 3, two of the largest most complicated games coming out this year. Give us some more options! This is extremely lazy writing when I have come to expect a lot more from you.

What information would you have liked to see in this review that was left out? We try to give you an idea of whether or not a game would be for your tastes, and frankly going through every single feature with a detailed analysis takes about 10X the time, and leads to complaints about nitpicks... and at the end of the day that style of review simply doesn't lead to more readers. In fact, it turns a significant number of people off.

The two page format is a good mix of detail and brevity, and hopefully helps people with their buying or renting decisions.

Yes, the peripherals are kinda fancy, but the games are still.. games.

So DJ Hero is not going to teach you how to be a DJ. Did any of the MLB games teach you how to play baseball? Is anyone here a better tennis player or golfer because they played Wii Sports? Are you better with self-defense after playing any of the boxing games? I know I didn’t improve my archery skills after playing Zelda. Hey, who here learned how to become a multimillionaire and build a gigantic home after playing the Sims(2,3)?

I swear, some of the most diehard gamers are sapping the fun out of gaming for themselves.

While I can see how a die-hard racing fan would definitely want more out of yesterday's Forza review, for most games this style of review works fine. 1UP went to shorter reviews like this a year or two ago, and I find that I like reading these much more than some dweeb at IGN goes into detail about every menu option and pads out the word-count with chestnuts like "Don't get me wrong" blah blah blah.

This looks surprisingly good. But like lots of others have said, I don't have the money or space to invest in more peripherals for music games. Since this is mainly single-player focused, I really have no reason to dive in. I'll play it at Best Buy or at someone else's house.

It's sad that the corporate culture surrounding the creation of games would think: "One game that deviates from the standard formula didn't sell; therefore, no game that deviates from the standard formula will ever sell."

It's a bit of a sad reflection on consumers as well, because corporations have learned from experience a bit. If a game designer deviates once and it doesn't sell, whatever move they make next is less likely to sell unless they go back to the tried and tested that make people happy.

I laughed at the concept of this game when I heard about it, but then I laughed at guitar hero too. Mainly because I'm a guitarist and I wondered what anyone could get out of it. Then I played it one day at work and realised it was an incredible amount of fun (made even better because, as a guitarist and a gamer, I was already really good at it). This looks the same way.

Good review, to be honest it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what this game is and the review doesn't need 40 pages on "press buttons to follow the lines on the screen" explanations. But it does cover what's going on, how it's a bit of a different experience, how corners haven't been massively cut just to milk a franchise, the game could really use more depth and the expensive version isn't really worth the cost. I hope this sells because the next version could be amazing and enough to make me drop some money

Originally posted by Hoffer:I still love the fake guitar games. I still buy and play every one that gets released. Unlike a lot of people, the second I saw DJ Hero, I thought it looked cool. I've had the game on preorder for months from Amazon. I played the demo in Best Buy a couple weeks ago and really liked it. Now that I've played it a couple days at home, I love it.

The songs are great. I would almost say the gameplay is deep. The harder levels make scratching more interesting having to worry about direction. Dealing with rewind, the effect zones, those red sampling areas, cross fader spiking, etc... The game can be as simple as can be or pretty darn difficult. I'm also really pleased with how solid the turntable feels. The platter spins smoothly and everything just feels solid.

My only worry is I've heard pre-orders were like half what Activision was expecting. People may finally be sick of all the plastic crap they have to buy. I'm hoping that as bundles drop in price, like the full band games did, people will pick it up. The more people that have the turntable, the better chances of future games.

I loved the ways musics were mixed in those fake guitar games and this DJ thingie. I wonder what stops the published from releasing the remastered CDs for those music. I would buy.

Playing them just felt ridiculous. I hate seeing growing men and women waving their bodies playing with cheap plastic miniature instruments made for the hobbits. I do think there is a place for this type of game, but just not my cup of tea.

It's sad that the corporate culture surrounding the creation of games would think: "One game that deviates from the standard formula didn't sell; therefore, no game that deviates from the standard formula will ever sell."

quote:

Originally posted by Lesmothian:

quote:

A lack of experimentation in the future if this doesn't sell

It's sad that the corporate culture surrounding the creation of games would think: "One game that deviates from the standard formula didn't sell; therefore, no game that deviates from the standard formula will ever sell."

As a Wii-only (currently, there's a PS3 in my future by the year's end) owner don't I know it...

I thought the review was spot on myself. There isn't a complicated setup for the mixes, it's plug and play for the most part. The explanation of the mechanics I felt were sufficient. Just my opinion though.

Originally posted by Ambushdrum:I thought the review was spot on myself. There isn't a complicated setup for the mixes, it's plug and play for the most part. The explanation of the mechanics I felt were sufficient. Just my opinion though.

Review should just have "Rent it," "Chug it, "Buy it," or "Give it to your least favorite cousin" and don't add anything else except the title in font size 120 points (and bring back the flashing HTML tag). There will always be people who will not be happy. ARS reviews have been working for me and at least they give me enough starting points for further research on my end.

Originally posted by giggity:What a joke. No one presses buttons to mix on a record. This is ridiculous. I'm sure the track selection is a bunch of cheese house and trance as well.

This game totally misrepresents mixing. I mean sure, so does GH with guitars, but at least its in the same realm....this isn't even close.

Actually, the track selection is pretty dope, and it's the one thing that attracted me to the game in the first place. That and the actual DJ's involved ... Grandmaster Flash and DJ Shadow sealed it for me. Truth be told, I am tempted to purchase this game solely on the basis of some of the tracks/mixes involved. I'm a bit of an audio snob, and ANYBODY that chooses DJ Shadow's "Six Days" has good musical taste, so I want to hear the rest of the mixes.

Playing them just felt ridiculous. I hate seeing growing men and women waving their bodies playing with cheap plastic miniature instruments made for the hobbits. I do think there is a place for this type of game, but just not my cup of tea.

Which is why I never got into Guitar Hero. I did purchase the first Rockband, but I only "played" the drums and did vocals whenever I had friends over, because those are the most -like- actually doing something musical ....

The two big foundations for dj'ing is 1. sampling 2. beat matching -- so you're not really learning anything about dj'ing. Scratching is fairly simple to pick up and isn't really used in music production anymore.

These are all fun and stuff and I can see how Rockband is a party game and shit but honestly it seems like people should just spend the money on buying Serato, cheap turntables and a mixer and actually DJ for real.

It's so strange simulating being a dj. It's like simulating a party, why not just actually _have_ one.

Played it in Best Buy. It's not nearly as intuitive as picking up a guitar or drum. With Guitar Hero, you know the songs. They are classic. Notes belong in the right place. Beats, strums and notes feel natural (if sometimes tricky).

With DJ Hero, you are told how to mix a song. Really? Maybe i don't think I should wikka-wikka here and crossfade there. It's hard to get into the groove of a song. its more like Amplitude + funny controller -- you MUST pay this mix *this exact way* or you are wrong.

Also, the build quality seemed mixed. The platter side felt solid and durable, but the fader side seemed very thin and fragile. Like 3rd rate Chinese plastic.

The button sequences, fades and scratches aren't always logical. I can't see a family playing this or it being as party friendly as GH/RB.

The fader feels a lot like my Rane and Pioneer, except it does not have optical/magnetic innards. For the person who said go get a Serrato set up and cheap tables and a mixer, you're an idiot. That would run you at least $1000 and then you still need some decent speakers. And, if you legally purchase your digital tracks, that is a lot as well. I spent well over $3K on my setup and I probably have spent twice that on vinyl and digital in my lifetime. It's an expensive hobby. $100 for a game is peanuts compared to that.

The whole "but you can't play it like you want to" argument is BS as well, since when did guitar hero or rockband allow you to improvise in any section? MAYBE in a drum fill but even then it's extremely limited. Get off your elitist trips, I bet I could drum and scratch circles around most people but I have a lot of fun with these games.

take one part automatic selling franchise with a golden name (...HERO) 3 parts alcohol and to much money, vigorously stir with 2 parts LOL...bake(literaly) for about 30 seconds...and DJ-hero was made. ☺